Aggressive neighbour damaged my fence

Davesnave

If the posts are leaning they were never erected properly in the first place, but the fact is that you have a grumpy, uncooperative neighbour who will never pay towards sorting this out, so as greatcrested says, the solution falls to your own initiative.

If it was me, I might start a slow repair process that allowed the neighbour's dog to escape a few times, but it would depend on the dog and where it might escape to. The object would be to get the neighbour to at least move his rubble etc so I could start to sort out the fence  properly. Unless he sees it as a useful thing, he isn't going to bother.

If the above was no good, I'd consider growing a double row hawthorn hedge, with a view to removing the fence altogether when it had reached a suitable height. Total cost about £50, but you're just too late for the bare root season.

csgohan4

Comms69 said:

Hodge58 said:

Generally the fence to the left of the house as you look from the front is your responsibility.

That’s an urban myth. Unless there is a written covenant, there is no obligation to have a fence. 

Funny enough it is true for me and on my deeds with who is responsible. But obviously wont be for everyone. 

Anyways thousands to replace a posts and fence is a bit high, how large is the area that needs fencing?

Davesnave

csgohan4 said:

Comms69 said:

Hodge58 said:

Generally the fence to the left of the house as you look from the front is your responsibility.

That’s an urban myth. Unless there is a written covenant, there is no obligation to have a fence. 

Funny enough it is true for me and on my deeds with who is responsible. But obviously wont be for everyone.

It's normal, usual even, but not universal.

Getting people to honour any responsibility is still a problem, however, regardless of what the title documents say. Failure isn't a criminal offence and alternative boundary markers are possible.

Arklight

We have a tiny back-garden and got a quote of about £2k to replace 3 and 1/3 fence panels. It was a similar kind of thing: dig out the concrete posts from the concrete in which they were embedded, level it all off, and start again with new materials. The issue was the labour from having rotten posts concreted into more concrete, and fencing actually being quite expensive.

Not wanting to pay what would have amounted to around £300 per meter of fencing, I obtained the following:

1. Pick-axe from Toolstation - £10
   
2. Sledgehammer from Toolstation - £10
3. Some concrete thingies to go at the bottom from Wickes - £20
4. Some really nice fencing from a local family fencing firm - £300
5. Some concrete spurs from Wickes - £25
6. Some Postcrete from Wickes - £15
7. Some posts from Wickes - £50

I then used the pickaxe and the sledgehammer to smash away at the edge of the existing concrete enough to be able to set the spurs in (relatively) deeply. I was able to smash away some of the concrete where the posts were, to place them, but all the load would be going on the spurs, which I then concreted in and bolted the posts on to.

It doesn't look like an amazing professional job, but it is fine and much better than what was there before. Came in at less than £500, which is still waaaay more than I would have thought a few fence panels would cost, but it is what is. 

mobileron

Remove the fence for repair,repair to take 6 months, so what he does then.

EmmyLou30

If he has a dog he has a legal obligation to fence his property to retain the dog on his own property. 

Do the posts move if you push them? If they're just wonky then could you not add extra wood to the existing panels to make them fit better? Our rear fence has concrete posts that have shifted slightly over the years though are very solid in the ground still. We've just added in extra wood to the panels to wedge them in as they were starting to flop about a bit (they're drop in style panels into the channels in the concrete posts).  

ian1246

Can you not just push the fence posts up right & then secure in place by either attaching a piece of wood at 45 degree's or by digging down to the concrete base & attaching a new fence post onto it, right next to the existing leaning one & bolt them together, essentially avoiding the need to dig them out? 

csgohan4

I would be careful in not making this a neighbor dispute as this will need to be declared when you sell the house 

comeandgo

EmmyLou30 said:

If he has a dog he has a legal obligation to fence his property to retain the dog on his own property. 

No he doesn't.  He just needs to be in control of his dog.  I have stayed in an area where there were no fences, all gardens open plan so to speak.  Dogs were trained to stay in their own garden, and they did.  

Snooks2

Tigger2018 said:

I have a problem with the fence in my rear garden. One of the fence panels keeps falling out in wind and it looks like this is because the concrete fence post has moved.  I called a maintenance guy to come and have a look at fixing this and he showed me that all the posts are out of line and will all need replacing or resetting at a cost of thousands. the reason the posts are out of line is because my neighbour has been piling old concrete slabs and rubble against it.  I have checked my deeds and they don’t show who is responsible for the dividing boundary. However, I got a copy of my neighbours deeds from the land registry and they state that both parties are equally responsible for maintaining the boundary. I don’t feel that I should have to pay anything as I didn’t cause the damage. I have had issues with this neighbour before, he is unapproachable and can be very aggressive.  I do not feel comfortable confronting him about this.  To make things more complicated the house is not owned by my neighbour, he rents it from his father (he used to live there) he is also an intimidating character.  I don't even feel comfortable putting a note through his door as I fear recriminations.  I own my property and I don't know where the owner of my neighbours house lives, although I do see him visit occasionally.

Can you give me some advice on the best way to get this resolved?  I don't have a lot of money to spend on solicitors. 

I speak from experience on this, tread lightly.  One of my neighbors put heavy kitchen cabinets against another neighbors fence, The neighbor  said please get your cabinets off her fence which was met with all sorts of xenophobic accusations like how everyone in the neighborhood wants her to move home. I was outside and said I thought this was your home. The next day I had F*ck off Yank carved on my front door. Another neighbor, who was not  present during the initial confrontation, upon seeing me sanding down my door said I must have been aggressive so it was deserved.  The end result is bad feelings between neighbors and my neighbor had to  pay £1000 for a new fence.